- What's that snapping noise?
Are you guys hearing that snapping noise?
Check it out, here we go.
What we're gonna do here,
we're gonna talk about season one of Yellowstone.
We're gonna do a deep dive.
We're gonna chop 'em up.
We're gonna pull 'em apart.
It's like your middle school anatomy class.
You're Timon, I'm Pumbaa.
(beatboxes)
Oh yeah.
Whoo!
If you're watching this,
this must surely be the director's cut,
because there's no way this makes it
to the commercial release.
(upbeat music)
Hey what's up, my name's Jefferson White.
I play Jimmy on Paramount Network's hit show, Yellowstone,
and this is "Welcome to the Yellowstone".
So what we're gonna do here,
we're gonna take a deeper look
at each of the episodes of Yellowstone's first season,
we're gonna sorta pry 'em open, one by one.
We're gonna take a look at
some of the making of the episodes,
we're gonna talk about the episodes themselves,
we're gonna dive in and chop 'em up together,
and learn some stuff together.
We're gonna have a great time.
Now, Yellowstone is an immensely popular show.
Hopefully most of your friends have seen it.
But if you happen to have any friends that haven't,
we're gonna start out by doing a five minute,
and five minutes only,
recap of each episode.
So, Yellowstone episode 101, "Daybreak",
in five minutes or less, begin.
I'm so confident that I'm just wasting
these precious seconds to show you the timer.
I don't need 'em.
10 extra seconds to describe
a 90-minute episode of television?
Who needs it?
This is a major tortoise and the hare situation,
I'm getting cocky.
Okay, check it out.
Episode 101, "Daybreak".
So, the first character we meet in episode 101,
you know it, I know it, we love him,
John Dutton, played by Kevin Costner.
The very first thing that happens in the show
is John Dutton, hauling a horse trailer,
is struck on the highway,
by a massive piece of construction equipment.
So, when we start the show,
already, John Dutton,
the livestock commissioner of Montana,
and the owner of the largest private cattle ranch in Montana
is under attack.
He's been in a car accident,
and already, we have a beautiful visual metaphor
for progress and the old way of doing things colliding.
Boom.
Okay, next scene, that's quick.
Okay, already I'm panicking about the time.
I should not have wasted those initial 10 seconds.
I am now, that was the hare taking a nap
in the tortoise and the hare analogy,
and now I'm sprinting to try to catch up with the tortoise.
Check it out.
John Dutton has four kids, alright?
The next one we meet, that's Jamie Dutton.
Lawyer Dutton.
He's a brilliant mind, he's a brilliant legal mind,
and he protects the Yellowstone from legal threats, right?
Then you've got Beth Dutton.
She's sort of like a financial assassin Dutton.
She works in merges and acquisitions
at a firm called Schwartz and Meyer.
And we learn very quickly about her
that she does not give a fuck,
and she's really good at what she does,
and she's ruthless and frightening.
She's ruthless and frightening.
Then we meet cowboy Dutton.
That's Kayce Dutton.
Now right now, Kayce is estranged from his family,
more on that later,
and he lives on the Broken Rock Indian Reservation
with his wife Monica, and their son, Tate.
So, Kayce is an ex Navy Seal,
he's a cowboy, he's a badass,
and he lives off the ranch.
He lives on the Indian Reservation right now.
And then we've got the fourth Dutton child,
that's Lee Dutton,
who is the sort of natural heir to the throne,
he works on the Yellowstone with his dad,
he's a livestock officer,
a livestock law enforcement officer as well,
Lee Dutton, is the fourth Dutton, okay.
This is, it's a parade of characters in this first episode,
who will become very important over the course
of the next 10 to 15 seasons.
So it's important that we check in on all of them
right at the beginning here.
And so then we travel to the Broken Rock Indian Reservation,
where we've got the new chief, Thomas Rainwater.
So Thomas Rainwater is the new chief
of the Broken Rock Indian Reservation,
and he sort of has a progressive mindset
in terms of how he wants to expand
the territory of the Broken Rock Indian Reservation,
and how he wants to sort of aggressively approach
advocating for his tribe.
And so he's a slightly controversial figure,
he's a slightly unorthodox figure,
and he's one of the three sort of major patriarchs
that we'll be following in season one of Yellowstone.
So, so far we've met John Dutton,
now we've met Thomas Rainwater,
and then the third sort of big,
heavy hitting patriarch in season one of Yellowstone,
that's Dan Jenkins.
So Dan Jenkins is a land developer.
He's a brilliant, aggressive legal mind,
and sort of financial mind,
and his plan is to build a massive new land development
abutting the Yellowstone ranch.
So things aren't gonna go great
between him and Kevin Costner,
spoiler alert.
So that's our three, sort of big, powerful, central
power players that we're introduced to
in Yellowstone episode 101.
How we doing?
Oh God, there's 54 seconds left.
We haven't even begun to talk about the conflict yet,
necessarily.
I'm gonna give myself a bonus five minutes on this one,
because this episode is 90 minutes long,
and it's utterly psychotic to imagine
that you could summarize it in five minutes.
Who would even set out to do that?
An egomaniac, surely.
So tell you what,
I'm gonna give myself another five minutes,
here we go.
Episode 101.
So basically the primary conflict of episode 101
that will come to sort of
spill throughout the rest of the season,
is these cows have wandered off of the Yellowstone ranch,
and on to the Broken Rock Indian Reservation.
And Thomas Rainwater, the sort of non-traditional,
unconventional, aggressive chief that I mentioned before,
he's decided to hold those cows
on his side of that land, right?
So, immediately, from the very beginning,
John Dutton and Thomas Rainwater in conflict.
John Dutton needs to get those cows back,
he's the livestock commissioner of Montana,
they're very important to his constituency,
and also his friends, and also himself.
This cattle represents a ton of money,
it's a ton of resources,
and so for the
Indian Reservation to be sort of holding them,
is almost an act of theft,
that's how John Dutton would see it,
obviously Rainwater doesn't see it the same way.
And there's also a little bit
of a Romeo and Juliet situation going on,
because Dutton's youngest son Kayce,
is married to Monica,
who lives on the Indian Reservation.
They both do, right?
So, Kayce and Monica are a little bit of a Romeo and Juliet,
who are a relationship that's sort of
trying to stay together,
despite being pulled apart by the larger forces at play.
Okay, we're still in 101.
Stick with me here.
Okay, check it out.
John Dutton's trying to figure out
how he's gonna get these cows back,
and he's sort of going through
all these different maneuverings.
He's going through these political maneuverings,
he's also sort of sending his son, Lee,
the livestock officer,
to have a sort of more legal conversation
with tribal police on the other side of the boundary line.
There's a sort of conflict that's brewing
about these cows over the course of the episode,
also, at the same time,
you've got a very important element at play here.
John Dutton is approached by Dirk Hurdstrom,
a friend of his from the past,
who wants to call in a favor.
And he says to John Dutton,
"Hey buddy, do me a favor.
"You've gotta take my grandson and straighten him out."
John Dutton says, "I'm not gonna fucking do it buddy."
Dirk Hurdstrom says, "Come on, please."
And John Dutton goes, "Okay, I'm gonna do it.
"But I'm gonna do it my way."
And Dirk Hurdstrom's like, "Hell yeah, do it."
So John Dutton sends his biggest, toughest, meanest cowboy,
Rip Wheeler, remember that name,
that's gonna be relevant for 15 seasons,
Rip Wheeler, to grab Jimmy Hurdstrom,
Dirk Hurdstrom's grandson, Jimmy Hurdstrom.
Remember that name, that's gonna be relevant for
hopefully a while.
We can only hope.
Six seasons, seven seasons?
Cross your fingers, folks.
To bring him onto the ranch and sort of straighten him out.
So this kid's a fuck up, he's an idiot, he's an asshole.
He had the arrogance to try and summarize
a 90 minute episode of television in five minutes,
who does that?
He grabs him, brings him onto the ranch,
he's gonna straighten him out, fix him up.
Okay, so throughout this episode,
this conflict has been brewing.
There's these cows, are they gonna get 'em back?
How are they gonna get 'em back?
What's going on?
And then,
at about the 60 minute mark,
that conflict erupts into violence.
So John Dutton sends his son Lee,
and livestock officers to go and bring these cows back
from the reservation.
Tribal police are there, and violence erupts.
And, as part of this violence erupting,
Lee Dutton, John's oldest son,
the natural heir to the throne,
is shot and killed by Robert Long,
Monica's brother, and thus Kayce's brother in law.
Right?
So, all of a sudden,
Kayce, his brother is killed by his brother in law,
he's there, and in an act of revenge,
kills his own brother in law,
his wife's brother.
So violence erupts and strikes both sides,
and tragedy strikes both sides of this conflict.
And we'll be dealing with that tragedy, that trauma,
for most of season one.
John Dutton is bereaved.
He's aggrieved.
He's upset.
His oldest son has been killed.
It was a conflict about cows,
it was about money,
and then his oldest son is killed,
and it's about so much more than that.
It's a huge, profound loss for the family.
I've got one minute left,
so I can't spend much more time
talking about how sad it is that Lee dies,
it's very sad, and Kayce's there, basically,
watches his brother die.
This is also like a formative tragedy for Kayce.
There's a service, a funeral, for Lee Dutton.
Lee Dutton is buried.
Beth, the sort of financial wizard slash assassin
slash all around badass comes home for the funeral,
and she asks her father, "Just tell me who to fight."
And John Dutton iconically says, "Everyone."
Because, in this first episode,
we've set up this conflict,
this sort of multi-faceted war on all fronts
between the Yellowstone ranch,
this massive, private cattle ranch,
and the Broken Rock Indian Reservation,
and Dan Jenkins and the land developers,
and the government of Montana.
It's sort of a multi-faceted war on all fronts
between John Dutton and his kids, and everyone else.
Yellowstone episode 101, "Daybreak".
There's so much we missed.
Beth and Rip, they're a couple, kind of,
it's contentious at this point.
Fingers crossed that works out okay for both of 'em.
(timer rings)
Some other important details we missed.
Kayce gives John Dutton this stallion that he breaks
as part of his job as a freelance cowboy,
he's a freelancer.
Love that, respect that.
Big ups to the freelance community.
He gives John Dutton this stallion who he breaks,
it's very difficult,
and he gives it to John Dutton,
and this horse is like,
this is a problem horse,
who will continue to be a problem horse for a while still.
Other important details,
God there's whole storylines we didn't get to.
10 minutes wasn't enough.
The episode is 90 minutes long,
and I have a tendency to spend five minutes
talking about every minute of it.
But let's just break it down real quick,
we're gonna run through some important stuff.
So I'm gonna say the episode MVP,
(applause) episode MVP,
episode 101, "Daybreak", that's John Dutton.
Of course it's John Dutton.
It's Kevin Costner.
He's the patriarch of this ranch, he's the MVP.
Incredible actor, he goes on such an insane journey
over the course of 90 minutes.
My grandma's favorite line (dings)
of the episode, Jimmy says, "What the fuck, man?"
My grandma loves it,
my grandma loves swearing.
She's always texting me and saying,
"Hey Jeff, could they swear more on the show?
"Could you make it more profane?"
So, she appreciates it every time we sneak that in.
So my grandma's favorite line of the show,
"What the fuck, man?"
An Easter egg. (dings)
So, this is a favorite thing of mine,
is tracking Jake Ream's journey throughout the show.
In the very first episode, episode 101,
there's a cattle auction.
It's where Dirk Hurdstrom approaches John Dutton,
and it's also where Governor Perry,
who I had completely skipped in this 10 minute recap,
which is insane, because that's a pivotal character.
Where we first sort of start to realize that maybe
Governor Perry and John Dutton have a relationship,
cattle auction.
At this cattle auction, you see two cowboys.
One of them is Jake Ream,
the other one is Sled Reynolds,
who's our animal wrangler for the show,
he's the head animal wrangler,
and he's just out there on the show, it's amazing.
He's like one of the best animal wranglers in the biz
and he's one of the guys who taught me how to ride a horse,
along with Jake Ream.
If you look at every frame of Yellowstone,
chances are someone in that frame
has helped teach me how to ride a horse.
My favorite guest stars (dings)
of this episode, you've got Gabe Casdorph,
playing the engineer who advises John Dutton
on how to move a river.
They move a river.
There's a river that gets moved.
I know that scene, how could you miss that?
That's such a big plot point.
It's a long episode.
There's a lot going on.
I didn't have that much time, okay?
My other favorite guest star of Yellowstone episode 101
is Sam Yellowbird, played by Tokala Black Elk,
amazing actor who plays a friend on Kayce and Monica's
on the Broken Rock Indian Reservation.
So that's two favorite guest stars.
And then I figure maybe every episode,
we'll check in on
how Jimmy's doing physically. (dings)
In this first episode, Jimmy gets tased,
and then branded, and then kicked.
He gets kicked in the butt.
(laughs)
Jimmy's been kicked.
In the butt.
Amazing.
That's episode 101, that's all of it.
Jimmy gets kicked in the butt.
(whoosh)
Real quick, it's a violent show.
People die. (dings)
Characters die.
Episode 101, you've got your big ones.
You've got Lee Dutton.
You've got Robert Long.
That's the sort of Mercutio and Tybalt of this epic saga.
But never forget Jimmy's tarantula,
who presumably starved to death,
when Jimmy was ripped from his peaceful life.
Ripped!
(laughs)
Look at that.
This is the pun camera.
Normal camera, pun camera.
But that tarantula in real life is fine.
And so is Dave Annable,
and so is the actor that played Robert Long.
They're all fine.
(whoosh)
Okay, so we put a voicemail inbox up on Instagram
a number of you can call,
and leave a voicemail.
I haven't heard any of these,
but I'm very excited to.
Let's hear one.
- [Jayden] My name is Jayden Suki,
and my favorite part is when Rip tells you
to shut the fuck up.
Thank you, bye.
- Dang.
Dang.
I want you guys to know that I had never heard these before,
and the producers queued 'em up.
The producers are the ones who like,
lined up these voicemails for me to listen to.
So that means that out of all of the voicemails,
the one that they wanted me to hear now was that one.
(laughs)
Just keep that in my mind, you know.
Great, let's listen to another one.
- [Nanny] Hi Jimmy.
This is Nanny.
I want you to know you are my favorite person
on the whole show.
You've been from day one.
Now, I don't know what your love life is like,
you know if you've got it going,
if you're in the dumps, whatever.
But I just want you to know, regardless,
I want you to know that anytime
you want to put your boots under my...
Crap.
My bed, is fine with me.
I screwed this up royally.
(laughs)
- No you didn't Nanny, that's so kind.
Okay, so we've got another,
there's two from Nanny here.
We'll listen to the second one now.
- [Nanny] Hi Jimmy, this is Nanny.
Hey guys, - Take two.
- [Nanny] I've watched you since this program began,
I love you.
In fact, you've always been my favorite.
- That wasn't the mistake.
- [Nanny] I don't know what your love life is like,
whether you're really going strong here,
or whether you're in between girls,
but I want you to know that honey,
you can park your boots under my bed
anytime you want to.
Buh-bye.
- Thanks Nanny.
Wow.
I was pretty harsh on the producers a second ago,
because they chose to have the first thing I heard
be "Shut the fuck up Jimmy",
but I will give them credit,
because the second thing that they had me hear
was so kind.
(laughs)
Wow, I feel lifted.
I feel buoyed.
Maybe I'll be okay after all.
Thanks Nanny, that means a lot.
You guys should also know that
Nanny, that's one of our producer's grandmothers.
So it was really sweet of her to call and say that.
- [Breia] She was not asked to do that.
- She was not asked to do that.
Here's the question for you,
how did she know that I desperately needed that affirmation?
- [Breia] I have no idea.
She can not be left to her own devices.
- What does your mom think about me?
- [Breia] You're also my mom's favorite character.
(exclaims triumphantly)
There will be a voicemail later.
- Oh, amazing.
That's incredible.
Let's fucking get some quotes off Instagram.
To say this the way my grandma would want me to say it,
let's get fuckin' get some goddamn quotes
off motherfucking Instagram, ya shit bags.
My grandma likes it when we swear on the show,
she's badass.
- [Breia] Your grandmother should meet my grandmother.
- They should hang out.
They agree that I'm good.
(laughs)
Our grandmothers can agree about that.
And then that one guy disagreed strongly.
Jayden Suki disagreed strongly.
What's up with that, man?
- [Breia] Alright, PRISM_CHILD wants to know
how much time do you spend on set per day?
- How much time do I spend on set per day?
Actors, we're very lucky in this regard.
There's a crew, a massive crew,
hundreds of people, that probably spend like,
depending on labor laws, 12-14 hours on set a day.
Actors come in, we do our scenes, and then we leave.
We spend anywhere from,
I mean if you're just in one scene for the day,
you might just be there for four or five hours,
you might come in, do your scene, and leave.
Or if you're in every scene for the day,
or if it's a particularly long or complicated scene,
like in episode 101 of Yellowstone,
those big fight scenes,
those sort of big, complicated sequences,
those could take all day,
so that could be a 12-14 hour day.
It's funny, it often depends on,
something that I never thought about
until I was on a television set,
is if your scene takes place in the daytime,
you can really only shoot that during the daytime.
You can fake it a little bit,
you can put some gigantic lights up
and pretend they're the sun,
but for the most part,
if your scene takes place during the day,
you can shoot it during the day,
and if it takes place during the night,
you gotta shoot it during the night.
So, for the most part, days are 12 to 14 hours long,
and they're either like daytime, or nighttime,
or we do sometimes this thing called split days,
which is like the latter half of the daytime,
and then we shoot some night scenes
when it comes night.
- [Breia] Alright, MUCHNEEDOFCOFFEE wants to know
did you know how to ride a horse before filming?
- Before the filming of Yellowstone season one,
I had never ridden a horse in my life.
Before we started shooting,
the show takes riding and cowboying
and this lifestyle very seriously
and respects it a lot,
so we spent a lot of time training and learning
before we started shooting episode 101.
And then a lot of the people that
taught me how to ride a horse are in the show,
so Jake Ream is an amazing real life cowboy
who appears in the show
and also taught me how to ride a horse.
Tom Foran is a horse trainer,
and an incredible rider and horseman.
He spent a lot of time with me,
very patiently teaching me how to ride.
Taylor showed me a bunch of stuff.
It's amazing, I sort of had the least experience on set
riding horses, which is also a gift,
because it meant that I could learn from everyone,
and I was sort of surrounded by very talented riders
who got me caught up to the best of their ability.
I'm lucky because
Jimmy doesn't need to be that good a rider.
Jimmy is just kinda learning how to ride,
so I have that excuse.
- [Breia] Alright, JACKCREEKCREATIONS wants to know
what got you into photography.
- Wow.
Honestly, working on Yellowstone got me into photography.
I took like one picture of Forrie J. Smith
with some mountains behind him,
and it looked really good,
and I was like, "Oh, I'm good at this".
And then it turned out that Forrie J. Smith and mountains
are hard to photograph poorly.
So since then, it's been a big learning curve.
It's a little bit like I, you know,
I played "Need for Speed Underground",
and got convinced that I was a really good drag racer,
which I'm not.
I don't own a car, I live in New York City.
The point I'm trying to make here is
that shooting behind the scenes photography on Yellowstone
got me involved in photography,
cause a lot of the crew members shoot on film,
and it became a really fun way
for me to sorta make friends in the crew,
and stay active in between takes,
and connect a little more
with some other members of the cast.
Yeah, Yellowstone introduced me to photography,
and analog photography specifically.
- [Breia] Our last one for the day, SHERYL_TAYLOR
asks what's your favorite color?
- What's my favorite color?
Green.
- [Breia] Why green?
- Oh fuck.
It's a little bit like an instinctual answer,
like green!
You have to just kinda, you know, why like anything?
You know what I mean?
Why do any of us, why are we drawn to anything?
I love green cause there's so many shades of green,
and there's so many naturally occurring shades of green,
like green appears, there's green all around us,
and I think living in New York,
green becomes this precious thing,
like we're surrounded by so much concrete
and so many tall buildings
that trees and grass become this really beautiful,
scarce, precious commodity.
Also, frogs are my favorite animal,
and frogs are largely green.
Not all of 'em.
There's also frogs that are totally different colors.
It's pretty cool.
Google frogs, you'll see what I'm talking about.
You guys know about frogs?
Guys, that's a wrap.
Thank you so much for tuning in
for the first episode of "Welcome to the Yellowstone".
I feel so, so lucky, and so grateful
to be on a show that has this level of fan engagement,
and has this level of fan participation.
We're so grateful for your comments,
your messages, your questions.
It really means the world to us,
so thank you so much,
and if you liked what you've seen here,
or listened to here, if you're listening exclusively,
make sure you follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter,
you can subscribe to Paramount Network on YouTube.
TikTok, is there a TikTok?
There's no TikTok.
Let's make a TikTok right now.
This is me doing that thing that TikTok teens do,
where they're pointing to the things.
It says follow us on Facebook, follow us on
(sings)
So you guys are gonna have to in post,
just add all those in.
That's for the editing team.
(sings)
This is how TikTok works.
You guys know about TikTok?
(sings)
Wow shit, holy cow, they told me to wrap it up,
and this is what I did.
I started a whole new bit that I will refuse to stop.
Hey, if you enjoyed this and you wanna watch more,
you can subscribe to us on Facebook,
Twitter, Instagram, Paramount Network on YouTube.
There's tons more stuff,
you go to paramountnetwork.com,
there's tons of behind the scenes videos.
You buy those DVDs,
you can message me directly on Instagram,
I'm @_JeffersonWhite.
The guy who has the real @JeffersonWhite handle
will not give it to me.
He won't let me have it.
For real.
@_JeffersonWhite.
That's the real one.
Check it out.
Thank you.
Welcome to the Yellowstone.
(upbeat music)